At the age of 15, Bermudian Sarah Maybury got a taste of life on the high seas as she sailed a tall ship from Charleston to Boston.

She has never forgotten the experience and the help she was given and now wants to help the crew and trainees of the tall ships heading to Bermuda as part of the Rendez-Vous 2017 Tall Ships Regatta.

Ms Maybury has volunteered to be take part in Tall Ships Young Ambassadors programme [here] and will help look after the trainees coming to the Island next month, helping them with problems and showing them around Bermuda.

“I really enjoyed my trip. I was on the Bark Europa in 2009 when Bermuda celebrated its 400th anniversary. I could not go this year, so decided to help as an Ambassador,” said Ms Maybury, who is now aged 23 and works at Validus as an Analyst in Financial Relations & Investments.

“It is really important to welcome everyone on these ships and show them how friendly and helpful Bermudians are and what a beautiful place the Island is.”

Ships taking part in the Rendez-Vous 2017 Tall Ships Regatta [here], will set off tomorrow [April 13].

It is a 7,000 nautical mile Trans-Atlantic race to six countries to mark the 150th Anniversary of the Canadian Confederation through its founders and founding provinces. They will be visiting St George’s from May 26 to May 31 and Hamilton from June 1 to June 5.

Craig Nikolai, Project Management, Tall Ships Bermuda 2017 & Sail Training Association of Bermuda, said that Sarah was one of the youngest trainees when she took part in 2009.

“She had an amazing experience on board and she wrote her college entrance paper on her experience and won a United World College scholarship. So basically, young people should know that adding their sail training experience on their job resumes is a good thing,” said Dr Nikolai.

“We hope that other people will follow Sarah and sign up to be an Ambassador. We are expecting more than 1,000 people to come to the Island with the tall ships and we want to make sure that they have an exceptional experience.”

Places are still available if people want to be a trainee on board one of the tall ships coming taking part in the Regatta.

Trainees can be aged 16 and up, and bursaries of up to 75 percent of the total cost are available for those demonstrating financial need and who are aged between 16 and 25. If people are interested in being a trainee onboard a Tall Ship, email trainee@tallships.bm.

In addition, if anyone interested in volunteering to help Tall Ships Bermuda, should email volunteer@tallships.bm. Or, call 296-2238.